Halloween 2021: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 6
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“We have no idea where whatever this thing was slunk off to, or even a good description of what we’re looking for. If we’re going after the creature, I think a trap makes way more sense. One of the only concrete things we do know is that it really wanted a piece of Thad.”
“It, and the drunken woman who tore his shirt,” Victoria adds in.
“Between the two, I’m less scared acting as bait for the mystery monster.” Thad looks around the now trashed reception hall, evidently taking account of the options available on-hand. “But now we’ve got to figure out how to snag it. There’s not a lot to work with around here.”
A few tables, some flipped on their sides, bundles of plastic badges, and pens scatted across the floor like seeds to the wind. Not exactly an armada, even by your improvisation-heavy standards. You aren’t much of a woodsman by any means, however surviving the hordes of stampeding gnomes last President’s Day forcibly gave you some familiarity with trap-making. Enough to manage a simple snare, and this will might be easier, since you won’t have to work with such tiny rope.
The question is where you’d be able to find ropes, counter-weights, and rigging easily available in a school. Eyes trailing along the walls, you spot a poster for this year’s musical. You’re pretty sure Necro-Cats isn’t skirting copyright as well as the director clearly believes, in fact the costumes’ pictures sure look like someone stole them from an old Broadway dumpster. Zombie felines aren’t your real interest anyway though. What’s got your mind humming is the realization that Thornglade High has a stage. One with an overhead setup that would almost certainly include ropes, sandbags for counterweights, and a catwalk to rig it all up from.
“Victoria, do you remember where the school theater is? I wasn’t exactly a big attender of their works back in the day.”
“Meaning you missed my tenure performing as Mrs. Malaprop.” Her eyes narrow for a brief moment, before you notice the smirk at the edges of her mouth. “For the best, our cast overall was… well, there was a reason I did a single play. Besides, I’d been hoping they’d select something by Neil Simon instead.”
Both you and Thad bob your heads in agreement, although at least one of you has no idea what the hell she’s talking about.
“I just meant they probably have stuff that could be used to set a trap. More than we’ve got around here.” You gesture to the deserted registration area, one of the few standing tables choosing that moment to collapse, sending a spray of badges to the floor.
Not needing more encouragement than that, the three of you head into the halls once more, following Victoria’s lead. It doesn’t escape your notice that Thad is still holding the dented fire extinguisher, nor do you protest. It clearly works well as a melee weapon, and honestly having a way to put out fires on-hand isn’t the worst idea. Especially with Jim only being watched over by Pumpkin.
He’s not just holding it, though, Thad is taking some test swings too, eyes darting around like he expects to be pounced on. Considering that you are hunting something that likes to ambush from the shadows, it’s not the worst idea, and you start checking the surroundings more seriously as well.
Still, danger alone doesn’t quite explain it, Thad seems a bit too engaged for a, so far, relatively small-scale problem. Worried he might have been affected by the attack after all, you probe as gently as you’re able.
“Hey Thad, you sure you’re okay? You’re acting kind of jumpy.”
Showing all the subtlety of a sonic-shotgun, you’ve successfully broached the topic, and Thad splits some of his attention from the hallways to you. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you nervous.”
“It’s not that; I was just worried. You usually take all this stuff more in stride.”
A noise rings out from the hall, and Thad spins, putting himself in front of you with a fire-extinguisher raised overhead. Seconds later, the air-conditioning system kicks on, and both of you untense. Victoria apparently paid the noise no mind, and you have to scramble to catch up.
“Over the past year I’ve been thinking about what I can do, really do, you know?” Thad flexes, causing the rips in his shirt to widen slightly. “I’ve always known I’m fortunate. The ease with which I can learn things, the way my body moves, even random chance seems to break in my favor more often than not. So I did what I thought was my best with the gifts I’d been handed. Played hard for my teams, got a job I was proud of, even had the spare time to help some worthy causes. That seemed like a good life, a solid use of what I’d been given. Until I met my niece.”
“This way,” Victoria calls from up ahead, her hand yanking on a metal door that groans loudly, allowing you to peak into a vast, dark chasm of a room. She walks through, trusting you both to follow.
Once you reach the door, Thad continues. “That woman has been hopping across entire realms of existence, fighting monsters by herself and winning. This gift that Victoria says she and I both have, it’s so much more powerful than I’d ever realized. Hard not to feel like I should be doing more, capable of more. Like knocking out one wild creature when it was in swinging distance.”
Only Thad could single-handedly fight off an unseen attacker tearing its way through a room full of people and feel guilty that he hadn’t managed to beat it entirely. Patting your brother on the shoulder softly, you reassure him. “Don’t forget that Pumpkin also had to learn about her abilities because her world collapsed. You did the best you could within what you thought were the rules of reality.”
A sharp tap of a foot rings out from the stage. “Speaking of reality, I would like to remind you both that time is flowing ever-forward, and as of now we have no trap, only bait.”
You and Thad take the message, springing into action. With a focus on speed, you don’t try for anything fancy. Snares are draped one-after-another across the stage, circling Thad like they’re about to jump him into some sort of rope-only gang. Victoria takes a position near the front of the theater, her eyes are best-suited to seeing through the shadows.
As for you, you’ve been set up along the back of the wall where the snares are tied off. Once the signal comes, you’re the one who’ll have to yank the right rope and loose the sandbags, hopefully snaring your prey. No sooner have you made it into position than a sound rings out, coming from outside the theater.
Moaning, low, and loud. Like a keening wail, or a wayward howl, only dialed up to eleven. Glancing over to Thad, you see a surprised look on his face.
“Did it make that noise before?”
Thad shakes his head, just as Victoria calls out from the front of the theater. “There is a fog rolling down the hall, moving at a concerningly quick pace.”
“None of that was around when I fought this thing the first time,” Thad tells her. “Did it change?”
“Or this is another threat, two abnormal creatures in attendance make as much sense as one,” Victoria suggests. “The more prevalent question is what to do about this unknown entity. Stepping away from this engagement to learn more about our enemy might be prudent, but there is also merit to holding our position in the hopes that the trap can still work.”
Cracking his knuckles, Thad eyes the door. “There’s also the direct approach. Go meet this thing head on and put the trouble to a stop.”
Retreat, advance, or holding the line. That noise is getting closer, time to decide how you’ll meet it.